Amiga Action

Review of Boris Vallejo's 3D Magic book, "Get a Life" lifestyle section, August 1995

If you haven't the foggiest who Boris Vallejo is, then let us enlighten you. He's the guy who created the characters Conan the Barbarian, Tarzan and Doc Savage. So there!

Cam Winstanley

Vengeful fax

In fact, Robert E Howard created the character Conan the Barbarian. He first appeared in a series of short stories in the 1930s Strange Tales magazine. Conan was just one of many Howard characters who graced this mag - swashbuckling English Civil War royalist Solomon Kane was another. Howard committed suicide in the 1960s, and so never got to see his character appear in the comic book Savage Sword of Conan, a series which has had an unbroken run from 1971 to the present day. The Cannon movie Conan the Barbarian was filmed, we think, in Yugoslavia and directed by John Milius, who co-wrote the screenplay with Salvador/Platoon director Oliver Stone.

Chicago-born author Edgar Rice Burroughs created the character Tarzan in the 1914 novel Tarzan of the Apes. The character was most famously played by Olympic champion swimmer Johnny Weissmuller in numerous black-and-white movies, and also launched the English language career of Christopher Lambert (he'd previously starred in the French thriller Subway) when he appeared as Tarzan in the "back-to-the-novel" movie Greystoke. Interestingly, current movie favourite Andie MacDowell also appeared in the film, although due to her poor English accent, all her dialogue was redubbed. By who we forget, although we've a suspicion it may have been Juliet (Truly, Madly, Deeply) Stevenson.

Lester Dent created the character Doc Savage in the early 1930s. Rights to the character are currently owned by the Condé Nast syndication group, who also hold the rights to The Shadow, created by Maxwell Grant at around the same time. Both characters are set to appear in a Dark Horse comic, featuring cover art by Ronin and Elektra author Frank Miller.

1 out of 10.

Very poor.

Yet, strangely, much in keeping with the rest of the issue.

Amiga Action

Retaliatory fax

("Go away" - Ed)